Recently the University of Portsmouth hosted the Seventh Annual Ig Nobel Tour of the U.K. 2009, which looked at sword swallowing. Here is an article from the British Medical Journal about some of the side effects from sword swallowing:
http://www.bmj.com/cgi/reprint/333/7582/1285
Needless to say Thing of the Day DOES NOT recommend you try this without proper training or you could well end up with a sore throat at the very least!
Tags: Dangerous Activities, Performing Arts, Sword Swallowing, Swords